Birdhouse City

Birdhouse City

Prince Edward County was designated as a "Globally Important Birding Area" in 1998 by The Canadian Nature Federation and Bird Studies Canada. As well as being the home to a diverse variety of birds, it's an important stop for migrating birds, as it's the first opportunity to land after crossing Lake Ontario. In the spirit of trying to help our feathered friends, Birdhouse City was established in 1980.

Birdhouse City isn't just a random scattering of birdhouses, each house is a replica of a building in or around Picton in Prince Edward County. The County has done a very good job preserving its history and its fun to think that there's a miniature version of the area just for the birds. The very first birdhouse created was this 80 room replica of the Massassauga Park hotel. I wonder if there's room service in there.

Birdhouse City is a community Involvement program which has participation from all levels of the local community, from schools to businesses (yes, there's even a McDonalds birdhouse in the park), to the Quinte Conservation Authority which oversees this project.

All in all, there's about 80 functioning birdhouses, and the city is in Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area, so there's more things to do than just looking at birdhouses. It's a great place to have a picnic or just go for a long walk in nature.

The one odd thing about Birdhouse City though is that the concept hasn't caught on with the birds themselves, and many of the houses have no tenants in them. Perhaps they don't like the idea of high density living and prefer a more suburban lifestyle. In any event, it's still a fun place to visit and to admire the handy work of an entire community.